[Dragon]

It also depends a lot on whether you actually face them all at once or one by one, whether you start at range or in contact, whether you have your fighter complement intact and your pilots are better than theirs...

Of course it does. The game would be pretty boring if the battle result was identical no matter the conditions.
Oh, and I forgot to say that I consider slapping the Karuna with Armor 10 or guardianing it in FRED cheating. Along with other FRED tricks. Were we to allow FRED scripting, an Amazon could defeat a Sathanas.

[LordPomposity]

My strategy for dealing with the Triteia has always been to creep toward it until I enter apocalypse range, then hit the reverse afterburners until I'm at full speed, turn on glide, throw everything into guns, and waste the Triteia while it vainly tries to get close enough to attack me. I'm pretty sure it gets within beam range at some point, but it's not smart enough to angle its nose down so that it can fire. Kaboom, scratch one Diomedes.

[The E]

Exactly. It is impossible for two Deimos and a Diomedes to box in a Karuna in such a way that it can't escape.

[Drogoth]

Exactly. It is impossible for two Deimos and a Diomedes to box in a Karuna in such a way that it can't escape.

"Tactical! All beam fire on that Karuna's engines!"

[MatthTheGeek]

Yeaaaah, riiiiight. Precision beam targeting, with slash beams...

[Drogoth]

Them engines are pretty big bro.

[Droid803]

Exactly. It is impossible for two Deimos and a Diomedes to box in a Karuna in such a way that it can't escape.

"Tactical! All beam fire on that Karuna's engines!"

Them engines are pretty big bro.

More like "Uh...try to direct the beams to the back portion of the ship, yeah, slash all over there".

Yeaaaah, riiiiight. Precision beam targeting, with slash beams...

Slash beams behave like regular beams if you fire-beam them at a subsystem!!
(not that that means that that is what that does that in universe)

[The E]

Still, since you're forced to use slash beams, you're forced to hope that you can do enough damage to the Karuna's engines to stop it from running away before it (or her fighters) disarm your slash beams.

The basic problem is that three ships can only ever cover 3 escape directions, leaving three others wide open.

[Alex Heartnet]

Doesn't the Diomedes have a fighterbay?

Those Stiletto II's ought to be good for something.

[Dragon]

However, as long as the Diomedes is positioned right and Deimoses are facing the Karuna, they'd make short work of it with their beams. Karuna doesn't have enough rear guns to quickly kill beams on a Diomedes. Also, let's keep strikecraft out of the speculation, because if we consider supporting fighters flying around, anything can happen, because of their superior precision strike capability. Stiletto IIs or Trebs can kill Karuna's engines just like Paveways or Grimlers can kill beams on Diomedes.

[Sciguy]

One wonders whose idea it was to invent slash beams in the first place    I can just imagine that design meeting:

Engineer 1:  Guys I have this great idea!  How about we make a beam that you aim in the general area of your target and hope it hits something important.
Engineer 2:  That is the smartest thing I have heard all day.  Lets do that.

Ship Captain:  Wait you mean I can't accurately target an enemy vessel and have to rely on blind luck?

Even with the slash beams, I would still take a Diomedes any of the other Tev corvettes.  I like the design philosophy of evenly distributed firepower.

[Alex Heartnet]

One wonders whose idea it was to invent slash beams in the first place    I can just imagine that design meeting:

Engineer 1:  Guys I have this great idea!  How about we make a beam that you aim in the general area of your target and hope it hits something important.
Engineer 2:  That is the smartest thing I have heard all day.  Lets do that.

Ship Captain:  Wait you mean I can't accurately target an enemy vessel and have to rely on blind luck?

Even with the slash beams, I would still take a Diomedes any of the other Tev corvettes.  I like the design philosophy of evenly distributed firepower.

Within Blue Planet canon, slash beams cannot be jammed effectively.  Scoring glancing blows with your beam cannons is definitely preferrable then not being able to fire your beams at all due to jamming.

[X3N0-Life-Form]

I sort of considered that slash beam sacrificed their accuray for increased refire rate, thus forcing gunners to sort of attempt to adjust their firing arc during each salvo.

[Dragon]

If you read the tech descriptions, slashers are anti-subsystem beams. They can hit multiple subsystems during a pass, making them good at stripping turrets off enemy ships.

[qwadtep]

It's quite painful to watch a slasher streak across the long side of a Karuna, which it seems like it always does, too.

[Sciguy]

One wonders whose idea it was to invent slash beams in the first place    I can just imagine that design meeting:

Engineer 1:  Guys I have this great idea!  How about we make a beam that you aim in the general area of your target and hope it hits something important.
Engineer 2:  That is the smartest thing I have heard all day.  Lets do that.

Ship Captain:  Wait you mean I can't accurately target an enemy vessel and have to rely on blind luck?

Even with the slash beams, I would still take a Diomedes any of the other Tev corvettes.  I like the design philosophy of evenly distributed firepower.

Within Blue Planet canon, slash beams cannot be jammed effectively.  Scoring glancing blows with your beam cannons is definitely preferrable then not being able to fire your beams at all due to jamming.

Slashing beams existed before jamming...  The fact that they are resistant is a happy accident.

I sort of considered that slash beam sacrificed their accuray for increased refire rate, thus forcing gunners to sort of attempt to adjust their firing arc during each salvo.

This makes sense, the beam itself has problems staying on target (Like gun recoil) and it slashes because the gunners make it.  In BP lore that could explain why they are resistant.  The magnetic bottle is always jigging around, making it difficult to block.

[General Battuta]

Slashing beams existed before jamming...  The fact that they are resistant is a happy accident.

Nope. All warships have used extensive electronic warfare since before beams were a thing. It's part of the layered defensive systems (conformal shields as in the FS1 tech description, reactive armor systems, layering and compartmentalization) we assume all warships use, and which play into the BP concept of an armor class.

[BlasterNT]

So in BP canon, are Karunas able to jam beams independently, as in TBI, or only with the help of an AWACS, as it seems in Aresteria and Delenda Est?  And are GTVA warships able to jam beams? 

[Sciguy]

Slashing beams existed before jamming...  The fact that they are resistant is a happy accident.

Nope. All warships have used extensive electronic warfare since before beams were a thing. It's part of the layered defensive systems (conformal shields as in the FS1 tech description, reactive armor systems, layering and compartmentalization) we assume all warships use, and which play into the BP concept of an armor class.

Wait, so does this mean that the UEF is better at blocking beams than both the GTVA and the Shivans?  Both of whom primarily use beam weapons and would be expected to know how to block beams as well as prevent their blockage better than the group who hasn't so much as looked at a beam in 50 yrs?  If the GTVA thought that beam jamming was a feasable thing wouldn't they have tried that against the Sathanas?  It seems more reasonable to assume that the GTVA just didn't know it was possible and that the UEF lucked into a solution that worked.

[Drogoth]

Slashing beams existed before jamming...  The fact that they are resistant is a happy accident.

Nope. All warships have used extensive electronic warfare since before beams were a thing. It's part of the layered defensive systems (conformal shields as in the FS1 tech description, reactive armor systems, layering and compartmentalization) we assume all warships use, and which play into the BP concept of an armor class.

Wait, so does this mean that the UEF is better at blocking beams than both the GTVA and the Shivans?  Both of whom primarily use beam weapons and would be expected to know how to block beams as well as prevent their blockage better than the group who hasn't so much as looked at a beam in 50 yrs?  If the GTVA thought that beam jamming was a feasable thing wouldn't they have tried that against the Sathanas?  It seems more reasonable to assume that the GTVA just didn't know it was possible and that the UEF lucked into a solution that worked.

The tech room description did make it sound like it was a pretty panicky and jury rigged fix by the Jovians, evidently not soon enough to save Ganymede though